Background music please (insert Superman theme here) and my Super Momma cape (insert Super Momma fierce look).
Perfect!
…for my foolish-and-corny-epic-drama-fail comeback to my blabbering world (you hear the word again! 🙂 ).
I know, it’s been a while! Been out somewhere out there for the past 10 months! I have already given birth to a precious baby now and spending sleepless nights again if I will liken my “blogging AWOL” to pregnancy. BUT, for the record, I’m not going to be a mom again soon. I do want to but not in the near future. Yet. 😉
Well, it’s just the “virtual” Super Momma who’s been away for quite sometime and the “real” Super Momma has always been around. 😉
So where have I been all along? I’m trying to remember what led to my sudden “disappearance” and I think I can trace it back to the time when I was trying to gather myself together until things happened along the way.
Allow me to recall even just some highlights in the 10 months I’ve been away, based on my epidural-affected memory:
- Got hooked to #AshMatt (just Google it! Haha!) and felt like a fangirling teenager again 😀
- Became physically active with running (with inconsistencies though 😀 ) and finished my first ever 10k run with an injured foot
“Pain is temporary, quitting lasts forever.” My first official 10k run with an injured left foot. Crossed the finish line at 1:10. 🙂
- Accompanied the Big Boy to their school field trip to Art in Island in Cubao, QC and Sweet Harmony in Taytay, Rizal where he thought we were visiting Dinosaur Island in Pampanga again
- Traveled to South Korea and experienced the wonderful Korean autumn with my husband to celebrate our 5th wedding anniversary
- Finally joined a Pursuit Community gathering which I’ve been attempting to do since the community started a year ago
Thankful and glad to be able to join Pursuit Manila’s last gathering for 2015.
- Enjoyed wrapping gifts for Christmas using magazine pages and recycled jute strings
- Became an amateur event stylist for my cousin-in-law’s DIY wedding and magically finished all the DIYs for her wedding in 7 days
- Spent 3 days in the hospital because the Little Princess experienced incessant vomiting and followed by diarrhea due to food intolerance
Waiting for the doctor’s advise to go home.
- Started our long-delayed home improvement by installing the customized pieces of furniture that I designed
- Celebrated the Big Boy’s 5th birthday with a trip to Avilon Zoo instead of the usual small home party and granting his simple wish for a Jollibee lunch out 🙂
- Witnessed my shy Big Boy come out of his little shell when he recited his poem at their Oral Interpretation Contest in school and performed their dance interpretation at their Kindergarten Recognition Day
- Spent an unforgettable 2 stressful weeks of overtime work in the office and sleepless nights at home to finish a report
- Took a break from work and spent Holy Week in our province and relaxingly savored the rural life I’ve long been yearning
- Suddenly felt becoming a certified Tita of Manila with my growing interest in collecting china and plants 😀
From cloth diapers to teapots and teacups. I’m now a legit TITA. 🙂
- Prepared a simple, stress-free Anna Frozen birthday dinner at home for the Little Princess’ 3rd birthday where I baked cupcakes for the first time 🙂
- Did things for the first time — climbing a mountain and surfing — and awakened the outdoorsy and adventurous in me 🙂
- Caught up with work, managing our home and the need to balance everything with my family in between all these
It’s been quite eventful and productive 3 quarters, hasn’t it? 🙂
But honestly, after such a long unintentional break, I don’t know how to make a comeback to blogging. I don’t know where to start. It seems to be like an unfamiliar territory all over again. I can even count with my fingers the number of times I visited my virtual home. Sedentary is the perfect description for this blog.
But this long hiatus gave me an opportunity to re-evaluate my purpose for blogging: the one that I stated when I started my very first entry versus the one that was inside my heart.
It’s still and will always be my desire to share my experiences and learnings about faith, life, marriage, motherhood and my other interests through blogging with the hope of inspiring and blessing other people. But I realized and I must admit that this motive was gradually and unmindfully got masked by my “secret wish” to turn my blog into something remunerative. I became so conscious of my low site visit and deep within me, I was hoping to get more readers and to build engaged readers which sort of put pressure to myself to come up with something informative or engaging. But guess what, the ironic thing is, eventhough I wanted to gain readers, I get uncomfortable whenever I see more people are viewing my posts! I personally do not like too much attention. Weird, right? 😀
Having thought about this, I, the Super Momma, am returning to blogging with a fresh perspective and a renewed purpose: to continue to share and hopefully inspire without looking for rewards beyond the heart-warming feeling of being able to impart something worthwhile out of my own heart’s desire because this is already a reward in itself. It also sets me free from the worries and anxieties of trying to reach more people and sort of “please” them with my written thoughts. I’ll just take it easy and bring back the joy of blogging. I believe the Lord has a plan for everything. Even for this blog. 🙂
And while I was planning my return, God reminded me what it means to be a Super Mom according to His standards through the post I read from one of my favorite blogs, Teach with Joy. Being a Super Mom is not about being the “super” mom who can do and be everything all at the same time: taking care of the family, managing the home, espousing a certain parenting style or belief, pursuing own passion and interests, keeping a good job. Nor being the “perfect” mom who can “ably and excellently” do all these at once. Nor being the “better” mom who is a “perfect” mom who is very conscious if she is doing her motherhood duties better than the other moms.
I know as moms who do everything for our children, we have fallen into the trap of this crazy “super mommyhood competition” at one point in our lives. I personally have. Being a breastfeeding, babywearing, cloth diapering and baby-led weaning mom, I had this thought balloon in my head proudly saying “I am that ‘super’ mom and ‘perfect’ mom” because I’m a modern working mom who practices and advocates attachment parenting, unlike the others. I also wanted my kids to be “advanced” in achieving milestones and felt the pressure when I see my fellow moms post updates, photos or videos showing off the accomplishments of their kids in social media. I know, very very wrong on so many levels.
But thank God for poking me and saying, “Hey, Gwynna, that’s not the role of a mother and motherhood is not a competition.” Our children’s behavior will always be a reflection of how we, parents, rear them and we will always hear other people giving praises or condemnation of our parenting, but as mothers, we are accountable not to men but to the Lord who entrusted us with our wonderful children. Therefore, we should raise our children in accordance to God’s purpose for us. Our standards for being a “super mom” should be based on His standards and not the world’s. And like the essence of this blog, He is the One who makes each and every mom a Super Mom.
Very timely realizations.
And now, I’ll save myself from writing and you from reading a novel because you know, I tend to share a lot without noticing especially when I’ve been away for sometime and it will be quite a long catch-up session. Just want to say that I honestly missed blogging. And I’m back! No pressure. 😉
After 10 months again? Kidding! 🙂
Super Momma Diaries 